Tornado Alley (PROG)

[sortagreen]

Let them experiment with self determination. They will find their own way.

Cubans are not well off under Castro, at least not by our standards, yet it is hard to argue they are worse off than under Batista.

The Venezuelans have a vote coming up tomorrow to determine if Hugo can continue to run for President after this term. Let them decide for themselves. I don't think it's a great idea but I'm not Venezuelan. Many of his supporters are also against this... it's by no means a done deal.

He's something of a boor to be sure but he's a democratically elected boor, far more legitimately elected than our thug to be just as sure. And calling such a person a SA thug without mentioning that in the long history of SA thugs nearly all were installed and serviced by the US. The assasinations of elected leaders like Jacobo Arbenz and Salvator Allende were not exactly moments of grace in our history, nor did our support for such animals as the junta that overthrew Eva Peron or the one that overthrew the government of Brazil in '64.

Those assaults on human decency were only the tip. Latin American history reverberates with names like Somoza, Batista, Pinochet, Stroessner, D'Aubisson, Duvalier, Trujillo... the list goes on; all animals of the worst kind supported by the USA.

So you don't like Hugo Chavez and you think we should add to our record of astonishing brutality towards our neighbors? Keep in mind we already supported one attempt on Chavez's life, if we didn't orchestrate it outright. Had his people not turned out in numbers to demand his release he would no doubt have been dead now. How much is enough? At what point are you just a criminal yourself?

Just a quick note on your failed ideology. Cubans live longer healthier lives than Americans. They didn't lose a single life in Hurricane Katrina, although they had to evacuate 1.5 million of their citizens. And their rate of literacy is damned close to 100%.

Vietnam is still well.

Brazil is doing extremely well under Lula.

Nicaragua just elected Daniel Ortega... again, and Democracy has thrived there as he promised it would.

And the last time I looked the People's Republic of China was holding more than $1 trillion in American cash and trillions worth of American debt, not the other way around, and will soon be dictating the terms of our relationship (Some would say they are now. Witness our attempts to get them to change the valuation of the yuan.)

So I'm not sure what you mean by failed.